Those of you who put money on the fact that Winter was the spy, I'll take my winnings now.

Now with that joke out of the way, I hope you all enjoyed the last chapter, as well as my recent updates (at least of the night I began writing this) on The Smell of NAPM and A Rose's Last Bloom. I've been getting out of a bad case of writer's block I've been fighting since a week after RTX ended with my other two stories, as well as fleshing out ideas for future ones when I should stay focused on the incomplete three I already have, and want to get at least one more update done before school starts back up again for me. So if all goes to plan, this should be out within a week of the beginning of this typing session.

Once more, if this is your first time checking out this fic, why are you starting reading it halfway through? Seriously though, if you like what you read, give this a follow, favorite or comment which I read all of, and I will see you lads and lasses next time.


The sound of alarms blaring was heard throughout the facility as two guards escorted their prisoner back to his cell after a long day at the courthouse. "So, uh, what's with the fire drill?" Mercury quipped as he was lead into the solitary confinement facility, where he would be staying until his trial was finished.

"That's for us to worry about, Black. Eyes front." the guard on his left ordered, tapping him on the back of his neck with a nightstick. The silver-haired young man stayed silent as he was uncuffed and placed into his cell. "And stay in there."

"Like I was going anywhere to begin with." Mercury said with a roll of his eyes, stepping towards his bunk as the guards backed away from the door.

"Close Cell 636!" one of them yelled, waiting for the door to shut, which it did not. "I said, close Cell 636!" Once again, nothing. In response, the corrections officer turned to his communicator on his shoulder. "Brown, did you go on break without notification again?" he asked into it.

"Warning: Opening all cell doors. Prisoners stand back as doors open." a computerized voice announced. On cue, all sixty-four doors in the solitary bock opened, a collection of thieves, anarchists, and murderers stepping out from them at the thought of unprecedented freedom.

"What? Brown, what are you doing? Close the doors!" the other guard shouted as the dangerous prisoners, save for a confused Mercury Black.

"Brown isn't here anymore." Chains voice responded over the intercom. Mercury's eyes widened as he recognized who had taken over the controls. "For those of you incarcerated, I understand not all of you are like us." he continued on as two White Fang members wielding high-powered rifles stepped through the single entrance and exit to the cell block. "However, we all have one common enemy: the ones who are to blame for all our individual hardships in life."


Back in the warden's office, Chains paced the room as he walked around behind the desk chair, currently occupied by the warden's freshly killed corpse, his head resting on the ground a foot away from the front of the rather-expensive looking oak desk. "Most of the prisoners in here have their reasons. You have broken laws, stolen possessions, taken lives, but for many of you, the charges you were found guilty upon, whether you had a trial or not, were because of your race. This can easily be fixed, but the humans in control of our kingdoms decide this shouldn't be so. That's where you all come in."

Throughout all the cell blocks, prisoners, mostly disgruntled, wrongly-imprisoned Faunus, stepped to the doors of their cells as they listened to the speech blaring over the loudspeakers.

"You have been deemed 'The worst society has to offer.'" Chains painfully reminded. "I give you an opportunity to challenge that label. All Faunus, this is your chance to fight back, and claim the rights you were denied that you deserve. Take up arms against your oppressors as we have! Join us as we make Remnant witness a revolution unlike anything it has ever seen!" he roared into the microphone.

As he did so, unnerved guards still untouched by the intruders that were the White Fang watched in horror as they doors to every cell in the prison were opened. Out from each occupied one stepped their inmates, some grinning at the thought of 'sticking it to the man' as they emerged with shivs and shanks they kept hidden during contraband searches in plain view in their grasps.

Mercury could only watch as his guards were taken down by joint efforts of the solitary inmates and White Fang riflemen in surprise in his block, right in front of his cell. Once they were finished with the guards, who were now corpses riddled with gunshots, stab wounds and numerous other kinds of injuries, they turned to him, and by the look on their faces, they didn't recognize him whatsoever. "Hey, what are you doing?" he asked, stepping backwards as the closest White Fang grunt turned their gun toward him. It was quite obvious they didn't recognize the former right-hand man to Cinder Fall, or they did, but simply didn't care. Either way, it was at that point the kickboxer realized they weren't here for him.


"An invasion? By the White Fang?" Blake gasped at the announcement.

"Yeah. Looks like they've gotten all the cells they can open. They've instigated a riot on the prison guards." Mei nodded, looking at the numerous screens in the command center of the Chess Initative's headquarters, all of them playing security camera footage from the prison outside. Across it, they saw White Fang grunts cooperating with the convicts to take on any prison guards or soldiers in their path. With the might of the terror organization, the Atlesian corrections officers were standing little of a chance.

"Well, what are we waiting for then?" Sun asked. "Let's get out there and kick their asses back into their cells!" he reasoned as he cracked his knuckles.

"Right." Noel nodded, looking over to the albino swordsman among them. "Mister Whitmore, take your team to help quell the riot."

"Yes, General." Snow nodded as Team STRM rushed out towards the exit of the hideout and into the prison. Sun and his group began to follow them out as they left.

"Not you guys." Qrow ordered.

"What? What about Team STRM's backup?" Neptune asked.

"They'll fair fine. Besides, I'm still your C.O., no matter how sidetracked we got from your mission." the drunkard smirked as his dejected Huntsmen in training complied with his orders.

"Then, what about us?" Ruby asked, assuming the same would be said about her offer to have her team help the upperclassmen.

"You eight are going to be taking defense positions." Winter answered.

"Defense? In a hidden area?" Weiss asked.

"Don't mistake the reasoning, Sister." Winter replied. "I have a feeling this isn't an ordinary assault."

"You're right." Blake nodded. "The White Fang's crazy, but they wouldn't attack Atlesian Military property without coordination and good reason."

"That's how they overtook Ironwood's fleet during their occupation of Vale." Yang added.

"And Chad was never one for coordination when planning our offensive strategies, at least at this scale." Marron shrugged.

"So, you're thinking he's not the one in charge?" Qrow asked.

"I'm not thinking. I'm stating a fact." the older Schnee sister answered. "There's a Fall's hand in this strike."


Outside, STRM had already engaged White Fang initiates as they came across the upperclassmen on their way to an armory. Snow used his weapon's glaive form to keep them at bay as Turk and Mei fired shotgun blasts and Dust-infused senbon at them. Once they were suppressed, the albino team leader rushed forward with Rocco, the two cutting through the group with their bladed weapons. Rocco was holding his own as he took the lead, knocking around the Faunus terrorists with his battle axe, while Snow kept up a slow pace and knocked an initiate that snuck by Rocco to the ground. Ready to incapacitate them with a kick to the head, but a haze suddenly overcame his vision. He attempted to blink it away, but looking down, he no longer faced a White Fang member on the ground, but a woman with white hair like his, covered in blood. "Snow...why couldn't you save me?" she asked.

"What?" he thought, backing away from the figure on the floor. "M-Mother?"

He suddenly snapped out of it as Rocco stepped into view, knocking the White Fang member out, then shaking his team leader by the shoulder. "Hey. Snow, you okay, bud?" the hard-rocker asked.

"I...am not sure..." the taller of the two answered before the haze returned again, this time being seen by all of Team STRM.

"What the..." Turk muttered, looking around, until another figure stepped towards them, an arm stretching away and pulling his weapons from his grasp.

"Turk...You've always been a disappointment..." Doctor Oys said angrily, stepping out of the haze and towards his son.

"D-Dad, stop..." Turk pleaded.

"What the fuck is going on?" Rocco asked, turning back to Snow, only for his leader to have been replaced by another new arrival only visible to the axe-wielding bassist. An older gentleman, with spines from an Ursa piercing through his back and protruding from his chest. "G-Grandad?" he gasped.

"Rocco...you let me die..." the older man responded. "Why...would you leave me to die?"

"That's not what happened!" he yelled in protest.

Outside of the circle of three of them, Mei watched in confusion as her three male teammates seemed to be losing their sense of reality in front of her. "What is this?" she asked as the haze overtook her vision as well. She felt a strong whack on the back of her head as she was knocked to the ground. Looking up, she saw three kids very familiar to her, one of them grinning as he held up a switchblade.

"Hah! I knew she was a bigger freak than we thought!" one of her childhood bullies laughed.

"My dad says Faunus parts are worth alot. Let's see if her's will make us rich!" the one with the knife nodded.

"N-No, please!" Mei begged before everything went black.


Violet watched in slight amusement as the team of Huntsmen writhed in fear in their comatose states on the floor, each muttering incoherent sentences of their worst fears they each were re-living in the illusion she had placed them under. "Very interesting.." she thought as she watched them, lookingup as Chains stepped forward, his men helping up those injured in their fight with STRM. "Your men are doing quite well, Chains." she complimented as the brute walked up to her.

"We have the whole facility under our control now. What's next?" he asked.

"Not exactly all of it." Violet answered, looking to a door down the hall and pointing towards it. "My main objective is in that room down the hall." she stated. "Disarm those four, throw them in cells, and assault that room."

"What about you?" Chains asked again.

"I'll join the fight again shortly." she slyly smirked, leaping into the ventilation shaft overhead as the White Fang commander began barking orders to his men, preparing their assault on this new target.